Yesterday, our new MSP for the South of Scotland, Duncan Dunlop, made his first speech in the Holyrood Parliament and it had me simultaneously in bits, furious and relieved that vulnerable children in our care system now have a champion they can look to in Parliament to fight their corner.

He was withering in his criticism of the Scottish Government’s flailing reform of the care system. He described a horrible incident experienced by a young man who had just been rejected by his mum.  He read out the first names and children of care-experienced children he had known who had died, and saying he estimated that over 2 million days of life will not be lived by them and other care experienced young people who have died.

His critique includes the failed Promise, which was intended as the benchmark for the care system in Scotland.

Duncan, who is a former youth worker and Chief Executive of Who Cares? Scotland. He told the stories of young people who the state has failed.

Watch here.

The text is below:

“My ambitions for Scotland are slightly different to those who are concerned with the constitution.

“Mine are inextricably linked to the future and aspirations of our care-experienced community.

“Those are our children and young people who spent time in our foster care system, residential care, kinship care, looked after at home, secure care or who have been adopted.

“There are approximately 13,000 of these children and young people in care today. They are the responsibility of the state.

“I have worked with care-experienced people for the last 30 years. I have been an expert independent adviser to the New Zealand and UK governments on care system reform. I led a charity here for many years called Who Cares? Scotland.

“A good friend of mine Tony Macdonald, he was a care-experienced young guy who spent most of his time in his childhood in care. When he was twelve years old, he recalled wanting to go home and visit his mum, and so he went to the phone in the corridor of his children’s home and called her.

“But Tony’s mum had her own struggles. She said ‘nah, Tony, can’t cope this weekend.’

“Tony felt the pain of rejection. The shame that came with that. He quickly turned to anger. He slammed down the phone and very quickly he was restrained by three adult members of staff, pinned to the ground with such force that it ruptured his gut on the doorstop. He was held there for twenty minutes.

“Tony would recall in later years, ‘how did they see me as a threat? I was a wee boy. I just wanted a cuddle. I wanted to be held, to be told I mattered and that I was loved.’

“The state would go on to spend over a million pounds not loving Tony in his childhood. And an unloved child can quite easily turn into an angry young man.

“Unfortunately, that’s what happened to Tony. Three months after his sixteenth birthday, he was sent to prison, where he would spend most of the next six years.

“But there’s hope. Tony’s mum remarkably turned her life around, and she gave inspiration to Tony to do the same. And after he spent eighteen months in rehab, I am proud to say I employed him. I employed many other care-experienced people too like Tony.

“Brilliant, inquisitive, intelligent young people, who are born the same as any of us. They have the right to expect to be claimed and loved. And many remarkable people in Scotland do just that. But there are those, and I’m afraid it’s nearly half, who are not claimed, who are left alone. For them, life is difficult.

“In many, the personal and societal cost is tragic.

“If in this parliament we want to make change, if we want to halve the adult prison population, then transform care.

“If we want to cut by a third our rough sleeping population, then transform care.

“If the scourge of Scotland, which is drug deaths, which debated in this chamber often enough, then we need to transform care.

“The reason this is galling is not just that we spend £1 billion a year on not really looking after these children as well as we could, is that ten years ago Tony Macdonald shared his story, along with thousands of other young people, to the First Minister of the SNP Government at the time, Nicola Sturgeon.

“She was affected. She said, I commit to ripping up this system. She commissioned a Care Review which led to The Promise.

“And to a large degree, I am stood in the Chamber today because that promise is unfulfilled. It has not got a transformational action plan, years on. We do not know where it should start where it should stop.

“We are told this culture is difficult on the frontline to make change. To anyone in this chamber who has worked outside of politics, when someone says there is a cultural problem, you know you have a leadership problem.

“But the reality of this is more stark. This is a crisis because too many people have died since promises have been made.

“I will now name a few of those who were known to me and my friends.

“I will not give their full names but I will give their ages.

Chloe aged 19

Violet aged 21

Rachel aged 25

Daryl aged 19

Mikey aged 17

Katie aged 23

Micheal aged 16

Iain aged 17

Mary-Anne aged 23

Natasha 16

Aylesha 25

Deksi-Leigh 22

“These are only a few who of those who have died.

“They are all care-experienced, they are all children of the state. They are by law the children of the ministers who sit on the benches at the front of this chamber.

“I estimate over 2,000,000 days of life will not be lived by those who have died prematurely since promises have been made.

“My ask today is simple of this government.

“Commit to publishing the premature death rates of all care-experienced people. We have a moral responsibility to know, but we also then have a baseline to know if we are making progress.

“What parent does not know if their child is alive?

“I will work constructively to improve this system because for me this is a national emergency.

“It may well be endemic and become normalised, but it must change.

“If you want to be ambitious for Scotland, let’s start with our children. We have all the powers already in our constitution here to do that.

“I dedicate this speech to Tony Macdonald. He also died in an accident on 2nd September 2022.

“Thank you.”

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social